New provincial deal with motels secures rooms for vulnerable people in Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan government has secured a group rate on hotel rooms as part of a one-year commitment to help support vulnerable people in the province.

The government is prepared to spend up to $1.25 million.

“(That) is the maximum amount that would possibly be charged and so that number is based on damage of more than $200 occurring each and every night,” MLA Gene Makowsky said.

There are five rooms at the Travelodge in Regina’s east end and another five rooms available at the Country Inn and Suites in Saskatoon.

This comes after the controversy around the Sunrise Motel, where the motel — owned by Sask. Party MLA Gary Grewal — was charging the ministry inflated rates for social services clients because the ministry wasn’t providing damage deposits.

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But with this new pilot, the rooms will cost the ministry up to $120 per night and will include a refundable $200 damage deposit.

“What that’ll allow us, allow the ministry to do is to experiment if using a damage deposit costs more or costs less and whether taxpayers are getting a better deal out of that,” Makowsky said.

He says these rooms are available for people on income assistance in vulnerable situations, including house fires or domestic violence or when emergency shelters are full.

The NDP says in a statement “after 17 years in power, the Sask. Party is out of touch, out of ideas and just throwing money at problems instead of addressing the root causes.”

“Spending $1.25 million on a few motel rooms raises serious questions, not only given the Sask. Party’s shady history with motels, but now given the lack of transparency around this contract,” the party said. “For example, Scott Moe and his minister need to explain why they removed the nightly room rate from page 13 of the contract before making it public.”

Makowsky says the ministry will run the numbers on how often the rooms were used and how much it costs after the one-year commitment ends.

From there, the ministry will determine whether or not this pilot was more cost-effective.

— with files from Katherine Ludwig, Global News